Bobbin or spool



(110 Model.)

J. L. CHENEY. BOBBIN 0R SPOOL.

No. 450,218. Patented Apr. 14,1891.

WI-t EE5E5 a'f/ wla NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN L. CHENEY, OF LOVELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

BOBBIN OR SPOOL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 450,218, dated April ,14, 1891.

Application filed June 20, 1890.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN L. CHENEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Bobbins or Spools, of which the follouing is a specification.

My invention relates to bobbins or spools having heads formed of thin layers of wood; and it consists in the means hereinafter described and claimed for preventing the separation of the layers or pieces which form the heads and forpreventing said heads from being broken or split.

In theaccompanying drawings, Figure 1 is an isometric perspective view of a spool, one head of which is in section in a plane parallel with the axis of the bobbin and at right angles to the tongues and grooves which unite the layers of said heads; Fig. 2, an isometric perspective view of one of said layers, showing said tongues and grooves; Fig. 3, a plan of the grooved face of one of said layers.

The improvement hereinafter described is similar to what is shown and described in United States Letters Patent No. 316,944, granted to me May 5, 1885, except that the tongues and grooves in said patent are represented as rectangular in cross-section and that the tongues and grooves of the same layer are not of the same width, while in the present application the tongues are dovetailed and the grooves are dovetail grooves, and a cross-section of a groove is exactly equal to a cross-section of every tongue,

Usually each head of the spool is made of two thin boards having their faces glued to-- gether, with the grain of one board crossing the grain of the other at about right angles to prevent splitting of the wood and to strengthen the head; but these layers frequently separate by the warping and shrinking and swelling of the wood, and the sepa rate layers are then frequently split by the dropping of the spool or by accidental blows thereon.

I form the heads A A each of two layers a a of wood, each layer being provided with dovetails, the dovetail tongues a a alternating with the dovetail grooves a a, and a cross-section of each tongue a a being equal Serial No.356,035. (No model.)

linesin Fig. 3) of each layer runs at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the tongues and grooves 'of said layer, so that when the layers are placed together, as shown in Fig. 1, the grain of each layer crosses the grain of the other layer at about right angles, no matterwhich ends of the tongues of one layer are first inserted in the grooves of the other layer or in which ends of said grooves said tongues are first inserted.

It will be understood that glue or similar adhesive substance is applied to the contiguous faces of the layers before putting them together to form a head.

The construction above described allows of the circular layers being out from a large board, tongued and grooved entirely over one surface thereof, instead of being separately tongued and grooved, and if such circular layers or disks are so cut with their centers all at the edge of a groovethat is, at the meeting-line of a tongue and grooveall thelayers will be interchangeable and any layer may be instantly united with any other layer to form a head without any expenditure of time or labor for comparison or selection, care being taken to turn one of the layers in such-a manner as to bring the tongues nearest the centers of the layers on opposite sides of the center of the head and parallel with each other. In practice, however, it is thought better to cut the layers into their circular form before grooving them. The layers ofa head so constructed cannot be separated by warping or in any other way, except by breaking the tongues or sliding one layer off the other in the direction in which the grooves run. Evidently, if the tongues of one of the layers ran at right angles to the grain of the wood, it would be necessary in order to have the grain of one layer cross that of the other that the grain of the other layer should be parallel with its tongues, in which case the edges of the tongues and grooves in the latter layer would be more liable to be broken; but with the construction above described both layers are of equal strength, and a bobbinhead formed from said layers is of much greater strength than if the grain of one of the layers was substantially parallel with its tongues.

The heads A A are attached to the barrel in any usual manner.

I claim as my invention 1. A bobbin or spool having a head formed of two layers of wood, each of said layers being provided with dovetail tongues alternating with dovetail grooves, the tongues of each layer being adapted to enter and fill the grooves of the other of said layers, and the grain of one of said layers being arranged at an angle to the grain of the other of said layers, as and for the purpose specified.

2. A bobbin orspool having a head formed of two layers of wood, each of said layers being provided with dovetail tongues alternating with dovetail grooves, a cross-section of each tongue being equal to an inverted cross-section of each groove of the same layer, said layers being duplicates of each other, and the grain of each layer crossing the grain of the other layer, as and for the purpose specified.

3. A bobbin or spool having a head formed of two layers of Wood, each of said layers being provided with parallel dovetail tongues alternating with parallel dovetail grooves, the tongues of each layer being equal in cross-section to the grooves of the other layer, and the grain of each layer being arranged at an angle to the grain of the other layer, as and for the purpose specified.

In witness whereof I have signed this specification, in the presence of two attesting witnesses, this 17th day of June, A. D. 1890.

JOHN L. CHENEY. Witnesses:

ALBERT M. MOORE, MYRTIE O. BEALS. 

